Schnittke's Violin Concerto No. 2 was written in 1966 at the request of Mark Lubotsky, a violinist who also gave its premiere at the Jyväskylä Festival in Finland.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Schnittke viewed his Violin Concerto No. 1 as a "desperate striving to find myself," blending the sound worlds of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, overshadowed by Shostakovich, with a "tiny breath of everything that was to come later."
Performer Biography
Eri Klas, the conductor, was born into a musical family in Tallinn in 1939 and was greatly influenced by his friend David Oistrakh, a renowned violinist.
Performer Biography
Mark Lubotsky, the violinist on this recording, won prizes at the Berlin Youth Festival, the Salzburg Mozart Competition, and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, leading to performances with many leading Soviet orchestras.
Performer Biography
The Malmö Symphony Orchestra, which performs on this album, gave its first concert in 1925 and has grown from 51 musicians to 83, combining functions as a theatre and symphony orchestra.
Composition History
Alfred Schnittke, the composer, began his Violin Concerto No. 1 in autumn 1956 while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, calling it his "Opus 1."
Compositional Technique
In Schnittke's Violin Concerto No. 2, a chromatic twelve-tone row serves as the thematic foundation, but the constantly returning note G creates an illusion of tonality.
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